Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's timetable is for responding to the Setting up the School Support Staff Negotiating Body consultation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is currently preparing the response to the public consultation on setting up the School Support Staff Negotiating Body for publication.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with colleagues in NHS England on the development of a regenerative medicine strategy.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
No such discussions have taken place. The Government is committed to ensuring the United Kingdom remains a global leader in the development of advanced therapies, including regenerative medicines, to drive innovation in the National Health Service and deliver life-changing outcomes for patients. The Department continues to work with public sector partners to promote a joined-up ecosystem that will support the development, regulation, and delivery of advanced therapies.
The Government invests in research into regenerative medicine and advanced therapies through UK Research and Innovation. The £42 million UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP) aimed at addressing the key translational challenges in regenerative medicine and at bringing innovative regenerative medicine therapies to the clinic. In its second phase, from 2018 to 2024, the UKRMP established three hubs: the Engineered Cell Environment Hub; the Smart Materials Hub; and the Pluripotent Stem Cells and Engineered Cells Hub.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what comparative assessment he has made of the level of support in prisons for parents on remand or serving custodial sentences with the potential impact on rehabilitation.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We know that supporting and maintaining positive family relationships, where safe and appropriate, is an important factor in reducing reoffending and desistance from crime, with recently published research finding that prisoners who received visits were 3 percentage points less likely to reoffend within one year of release (25% vs 28%). Prisons will assess the need for individual, tailored family support on a case-by-case basis, noting that this is not always appropriate for all prisoners or their families.
Family support is a central component of a rehabilitative prison environment and is recognised as critical to the wellbeing of individuals in custody, regardless of their legal status. To support this, prisons across England and Wales offer a range of services to maintain family relationships including social visits, family days and the award-winning charity led initiative Storybook Mums and Dads, enabling parents in prison to record bedtime stories for their children. Both remand and convicted prisoners can access the full range of family support services, which includes access to family support workers, parenting support, and signposting to advice and external agencies.
Support for maintaining family contact is consistent across remand and convicted prisoners, who can contact their family through visits, telephone and video calls, and letters. Under Prison Rules, remand prisoners are entitled to a greater number of visits than convicted prisoners which reflects the legal distinction between those awaiting a trial or sentencing, and those who are convicted. Additionally, remand prisoners can spend more money on phone credit or postage stamps, should they wish to send additional mail. This is a result of statutory entitlements, and beyond these distinctions, there is no difference in the family support offer between remand and convicted prisoners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of Lord Farmer's 2017 review and (b) whether further steps are planned.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Lord Farmer’s 2017 review highlighted the importance of family and supportive relationships in rehabilitation and reducing re-offending. Since then, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has taken extensive action to put those recommendations into practice, with the majority now completed. All prisons are required to publish local family and ‘significant other’ strategies, to seek and respond to the views of families in supporting people in custody, including in relation to release planning, and to identify and support prisoners without family or relationship contact. These principles are now embedded within HMPPS Family Services and continue to inform practice across the prison estate.
HMPPS has also implemented recommendations on the positive role of prisoner-to-prisoner relationships, strengthening peer support and mentoring through existing roles such as peer mentors, Listeners, wing representatives and learning tutors. Work is under way to develop a common set of standards for peer support and mentoring, using an evidence-led approach to testing, evaluation and potential future scaling up, to improve quality, consistency and safeguards.
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS continue to work with Lord Farmer and delivery partners to monitor and strengthen delivery through inspection and performance frameworks. Further work is planned to build on this foundation, particularly to strengthen family engagement and pro-social peer relationships as part of a wider rehabilitative culture informed by desistance principles and psychologically informed practice.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with representatives from prisons on making prison visits more suitable for children and families.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Ministry of Justice Ministers have frequent discussions with prison staff on all aspects of the prison experience. His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) encourages prisons to make the experience of those visiting prisoners the ‘best it can be’, and to seek feedback from visitors on how to improve services. Information on the quality of social visits, including feedback from stakeholders, is included in the HMPPS Families Performance Improvement Measure.
Supporting consistent contact between parents in prison and their children where it is safe and appropriate, helps to mitigate the harm arising from separation caused by imprisonment.
Making prison visits family‑friendly is an important element of maintaining family ties and supporting effective rehabilitation. Visiting a prison can be a daunting experience for anyone, particularly those already coping with the emotional impact of having a loved-one in custody. A welcoming visiting environment helps to reduce fear, anxiety and stigma, enabling families to feel safe and supported during what may be a stressful experience.
Family‑friendly visits allow relations to interact more naturally, supporting healthy attachment and emotional wellbeing. Simple measures such as clear information, trained staff, suitable facilities and access to play or activity areas can make a significant difference to the experience. These features help visits to feel more like a normal family interaction and allow parents in custody to maintain a meaningful role in their child’s life.
Prison video calling is already an established part of the prison communications offer. The provision of secure social video calls, as a supplement to letters, telephone calls and in‑person visits, supports the maintenance of family ties and reflects key recommendations made in Lord Farmer’s reviews, which highlighted the importance of strong family relationships in reducing the risk of re‑offending.